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—A bit before everyone gathered.

[Hey, Soldier, you will be taking control of the surroundings of the Lanpeach Complex from here on, right?] (Libra)

The silver-haired twin tail beauty, Libra, moved her face close while making her white and red contrasting shrine maiden clothes, and directed a smile nearing a grin. 

[Hm? Yeah, it would end up like that. Well, isn’t it fine to just leave it to him? But it is not control. We are just going to be maintaining order before joining the Surface District. Also, I am  leaving it to Sage.] (Lanpeach)

Chihiro and Dry were talking on the side, and Lanpeach was acting as if he was looking while having a conversation in his thoughts. 

They are already used to this, so no one noticed that he was acting strange. 

[Isn’t that wasteful? You are using your money, so get the rights of possession while at it. Come on, there will be a lot of EXP too.] (Libra)

[Aah, you are telling me to go as far as zone ruling, huh.] (Lanpeach)

The words of Libra show how much freedom there was in Powder of Elements. You can even create a nation in this game. 

The method is simple. You just have to raise the level of Base Defense Knowledge to its highest level and obtain vast land. 

Well, wars and such will be happening though. 

Zone ruling is a step before that. 

[But that’s boring. If you make your base bigger, there will be defenses and invasions, but there are no noteworthy quests, and dungeon diving is far more profitable in the end. Also, the EXP would be a waste.] (Lanpeach)

He didn’t feel like it. 

He has founded a nation in his 5 playthroughs. 

You can even build stuff like laboratories, but buildings like smithies and ateliers rely on your blacksmith and alchemy level, moreover, their levels are lower than the player’s. 

They create items automatically for the player, but it is honestly faster to create stuff like potions by yourself. 

In that case, it would be more useful to just put your EXP on other skills. 

[That wouldn’t be fun. Try a lot of stuff. This is a ‘game’ just like you say, right, Soldier? A system that is modified by reality, right? In that case, there might be something interesting in it.] (Libra)

Libra noticed that he wasn’t feeling it, so she nudged him on his shoulder with her own shoulder. 

He would like to say okay with a pretty girl taking such an attitude, but…

[Mira’s in the middle of a big campaign. If you pay 10,000 EXP, you will get the useful Mira by your side! You can pay 10,000 EXP 4 times more every month and you will be fine!] 

There’s a log flashing right in front of his eyes. 

It was originally 45,000 EXP, so you would need to pay a loan with terribly high interest here, but it seems like Mira has interest in becoming a comrade. 

[No! I am sure she is a tyrannic and gorilla-like woman. I am sure she is just selling herself as being able to know a cute girl like her, but she will become a completely different girl once the contract is signed. I think it would be better to be satisfied with just me.] (Libra)

Libra hugged his arm like a koala. Her face was a bit desperate. 

[You will also get the Bar of Mirrors if you sign the contract. It comes with the service of storing the annoying support character, whose only trait is ero, inside a rice cooker!] 

And there was extra service added. 

It is a service that oozes malice. 

[SEEEEE?! I am sure her personality is nasty too! She is not the loyal type like me!] (Libra)

[It showed up after you called her a gorilla.] (Lanpeach)

Libra rubbed her cheeks on his in tears, but didn’t she just ask for it? 

[But but, if you control the zone, won’t it be easier to prevent those, uhm…death flags(?)? You would have a higher chance of winning if you invite the enemy into a spacious zone over a building, right?] (Libra)

[Aah, I see. Hmm, you do have a point. There’s that way of thinking.] (Lanpeach)

The death flags of Lanpeach will most likely become more powerful as he increases his levels. 

It is a pretty high difficulty as if they have no intention of letting Lanpeach clear. 

[…Got it. Whichever the case, I still want to raise my levels. Well then, I will raise the levels of Base Defense Knowledge.] (Lanpeach)

[Yay! Thanks, Soldier! Let’s display Expedition in a way that will be impactful for everyone!] (Libra)

[Kay kay. Come on, move away.] (Lanpeach)

She was pushing her face on him, so he pushed her away and obtained the skill. 

[Acquire Base Defense Knowledge up to level 5.] (Lanpeach)

[Acquired.]

[You can now use Zone Rule.] 

[You have acquired Expedition with Level 4.] 

[Expedition: You can send soldiers to explore or maintain order on the surroundings of your base.] 

[You have acquired Infantry Support Armored Vehicle, Snow Rabbit, with Level 4.] 

[You can now summon 100 Artificial Spirits with Level 5.] 

[The Rabbit Gunners have evolved to High Rabbit Gunners.] 

[The Taraworkers have evolved to Taraworkers II.] 

[Please choose new rabbits that can be summoned.] 

[All 100 will be High Rabbit Gunners.] (Lanpeach)

A whole blog of logs showed up and he chose all of them to be gunners. 

There was no hesitation. He used 9,000 EXP and now he has 16,000 remaining. 

[Alright, preparations done.] (Lanpeach)

[Yup yup, then, it is time to knock everyone’s socks off! I am sure they will be surprised!] (Libra)

The shrine maiden girl floated in the air with satisfaction and winked cutely. 

◇◇

And then, what appeared in front of them after he pressed the Expedition button was the Infantry Support Armored Vehicle, Snow Rabbit. 

Its snow white body didn’t have a single blemish, and even when mud flew about, it was deflected by the Spirit Barrier. 

Its appearance is cute like a rabbit made from snow, but it is close to 30 meters in size. 

There’s a stupidly big cannon on its back, and a missile launcher on its rear. 

It has 8 tires that could easily crush small rubble. 

——

Snow Rabbit

Infantry Support Armored Vehicle

Overall Length: 28 meters, Overall Height: 11 meters. 

Snow Rabbit Cannon, Homing Beam Autocannon, Beam Missile Launcher, Chaff Missile, numerous drones for exploration.

——

It is a military vehicle that has terrifying equipment installed, contrary to its cute appearance. 

“U-Uhm, Lan, is this the support (from the Underground District)…?” (Chihiro)

“Yeah, support (from the Space Library). Won’t it be of decent use?” (Lanpeach)

Everyone had their mouths wide open after seeing the Snow Rabbit that appeared all of a sudden, but he shrugged his shoulders with a calm face. 

What’s scary is that this minor villain has the game perception that he used a game mechanic, so no one would feel anything weird about it. 

“I-It will be of decent use…?” (Chihiro)

Chihiro was dumbstruck about where you would need to use such fearsome equipment. But Sage and Krita agreed. 

{The Underground District got hindered, so they must have sent more firepower. It is your fault, Krita-san.} (Sage)

{I-If I knew the Underground District would get this serious, I wouldn’t have thought about putting a hand on him. That’s an armored vehicle I have never seen before! Who would have imagined they would bring out a military vehicle in such a place, moreover, a weapon from the Underground District?!} (Krita)

Sage glared at Krita, and he hurriedly responded in a low volume. 

The two of them were sure the Underground District added more force because the development of Shangri-La was hampered. 

The truth here is that Libra instigated a level up because she thought it would be interesting though. 

“Maintaining public order will be easy from here on if we have this…” (Lanpeach)

Everyone couldn’t speak because of their surprise, but Lanpeach was the only one with an uneasy face.

The reason being…

The side of the Snow Rabbit opened up with a *whiiin*. 

A thick hatch lifted up, showing another door inside for a double layer. That door opened as well and armed rabbits gathered like a bundle of thick white fur. 

The people around were wondering what they were doing, and they brought out a whole lot of chopsticks and began to split them one by one. 

And then, one rabbit raised a chopstick with a red tip as if it had obtained a legendary sword, and hopped in place happily. 

“I am the admiral-usa! Yay, the admiral hat is mine then-usa ne.” 

“Can’t be helped.” 

“Well, anyone is fine, isn’t it-usa?” 

“It is the same no matter who does it.” 

“Wasn’t the raffle just now weird?” 

The rabbit gleefully wore an admiral hat and changed into military clothes.

Looks like they were having a raffle to decide who is the admiral. It is a sight that makes one uneasy. 

“Ah, the door is already open-usa!” 

“I didn’t notice at all-usa yo!” 

“I was thinking about coming out all cool though. We are being watched-usa yo.”

“Hurry hurry-usa~.” 

They come out from the Snow Rabbit all hurriedly as if rolling out, gathering the attention of everyone. 

They lined up cleanly, and began to lick their front paws, grooming themselves with highly coordinated movements. 

“The 100 of the Snow Rabbit Unit is now in post-usa!” 

The admiral rabbit saluted and twitched its nose. 

It was looking at him with round eyes, so the girls raised their voices, calling it cute. 

“Uh, good work. An order to the admiral rabbit: explore the surroundings of Shangri-La and clean up the monsters and bandits. Do your best to cooperate with everyone.” (Lanpeach)

Lanpeach was saluted, so he unconsciously saluted back. 

But the rabbits that were lined up at the back were going ‘It is cold-usa’ and curling up or ‘got any carrots?’ and begging the people around. 

A sight that didn’t give much confidence. 

This is normally something that should be left to humans, and yet, there were no people of such level in the Lanpeach Complex. 

That’s why there was no choice but to leave it to the rabbits, but these rabbits have strong sense of self contrary to the game, and are selfish. 

It is normal for them to snatch food and slack, would take naps, or plow the fields. It only evoked unease. 

Even though they are Artificial Spirits for military use, it is mysterious how they look like the regular type. 

——

High Rabbit Gunners

Beam Rabbit Bazooka (Attack Power 200)

Beam Rabbit Machine Gun (Attack Power 150)

Heat Knife, liquified grenade, flashbang. 

——

But their equipment surpasses Lanpeach’s by a lot, and their monster level is 5. 

They are stronger than Lanpeach, and he has no connections to hire people of this level. And so, he had no choice but to resign. 

“Maintain public order and eliminate monsters; understood-usa!” 

The admiral rabbit coughed and its red eyes let out a glare. 

“Now then, Snow Rabbit Cannon, prepare for firing! We are razing this place-usa!” 

The admiral rabbit raised its hand and was suddenly about to shoot the cannon. 

“Don’t! Leave the buildings as they are as much as possible, and just clean the monsters.” (Lanpeach)

“I see-usa ka… I wanted to see just how impressive the main cannon was-usa.” 

The rabbit looked sad and nodded with its head hanging low. It made him feel bad which showed just how unfair cute creatures are. 

“I get it, so prepare to fire the Snow Rabbit Cannon-usa!” 

The admiral rabbit wanted to shoot the cannon no matter what. 

“You don’t get it! Oi, you guys, keep an eye on this one so it doesn’t go out of control!” (Lanpeach)

“Yes-usa.” 

“I will prepare the squeaky hammer-usa.” 

“All these splittable chopsticks don’t have color though?” 

Lanpeach and his group were worried about the future. 

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